Ford made good decision to bring jobs to Ohio

February 20, 2013

We wholeheartedly applaud a decision that the Ford Motor Co. will reportedly announce this week, that the automaker will relocate from Spain to a community in Ohio for production of a small engine.

According to The Associated Press, Ford plans to invest about $200 million in its factory in Brook Park, Ohio, to produce four-cylinder, 2-liter "Eco-Boost" engines, an increasingly popular engine in Ford models which will help the company meet toughening U.S. fuel standards. The move will result in some 450 new jobs at the facility which presently employs about 1,300 hourly and salaried workers. The Brook Park plant currently makes two, larger, 6-cylinder engines.

The engines, which are currently produced in quantity in Valencia, Spain and shipped to the U.S., are turbocharged, which deliver a jolt of horsepower when the accelerator is depressed. They have become increasingly popular with drivers in this country, as the price of gasoline has spiraled.

AP reports that in 2012, just over half the cars sold in the U.S. had four-cylinder engines, according to J.D. Power and Associates. It was only 36 percent in 2007. By contrast, cars with six-cylinder engines dropped to 32 percent from 40 percent in 2007.

In all honesty, cold hard business facts played a role in this decision. AP reported that making the engines in Spain leaves Ford vulnerable to high shipping expenses and the risk of currency fluctuations that could cost the company millions. That said, the company, in all likelihood, had a variety of options to pick from. The one it chose will help sustain some 1,300 existing American jobs while creating hundreds of new ones.